Texas rallies after scary injury, forces Game 3 with Alabama
The Alabama comeback machine ran out of gas Friday night and now must play a win-or-stay-home final Saturday.
After cruising an early four-run lead, Texas scored seven straight runs in the NCAA super regional to win 7-5. It forces a 1 p.m. CT Saturday finale with the winner heading to the Women’s College World Series.
The game turned after Texas ace pitcher Miranda Elish was injured and left the game. She took a throw to the face in the second inning and was transported to the hospital by ambulance.
Texas (46-16) was down 3-0 at that point and fell down 4-0 before rallying at the plate and in the circle.
Longhorn catcher Mary Iakopo, who threw the ball that struck Elish, was the one who kickstarted the comeback. Her three-run homer in the third cut it to 4-3.
“I was thinking about Miranda the whole time," Iakopo said, "but I had two strikes on me and I was just trying to stay alive.”
Then it was MK Tedder -- a sophomore from Hoover, Alabama -- who tied it with a solo homer.
Tedder said Alabama had recruited her at one point when she was a younger player in the process.
“It just wasn’t the place for me,” she said, “because I wanted to go away from home and become a better person.”
Texas added three more in the fourth with two coming on an error from Tide second baseman Skylar Wallace.
“You could feel a little shift after the first home run,” Alabama first baseman Bailey Hemphill said. “You could feel the momentum move toward them, then they tied it up. Then the wheels started falling off.”
Alabama (56-8) had come from down 5-0 to clinch the regional Sunday over Arizona State but couldn’t muster the hitting to repeat that Friday. Bailey Hemphill hit a solo home run in the fifth to cut it to two runs.
But Texas pitcher Shealyn O’Leary pitched an exceptional game in relief of Elish. She went the final 5 1/3 innings allowing just two hits, one walk and four strikeouts.
Hemphill said O’Leary was mixing speeds better than Elish and keeping Alabama hitters from getting too comfortable in the box.
Texas coach Mike White said O’Leary was overthrowing the ball a little bit when she first entered the game. A few words from the dugout and she settled in to effectively shutdown a hot Alabama lineup.
“That showed a lot of maturity for a kid in that situation,” White said. “She never seems to get rattled.”
The challenge now shifts to Alabama -- the higher-seeded team who appeared to be on their way to Oklahoma City before the whole game changed Friday night.
“The good thing is we have another game and we’re at home as the home team,” Murphy said. “So, that’s the best part ... For whatever reason, it did feel deflated or whatever. I don’t know how to describe it.”
Pitching was an issue at times for Alabama in the loss. Fouts entered the game in the third inning after two singles had Texas primed for something bigger. Murphy said he went to his ace to pitch to Iakopo because she was the Longhorns’ best hitter and her three-run homer didn’t disprove that. SEC pitcher of the year Sarah Cornell was available to pitch Friday but Murphy said it was a coach’s decision to not use her in Game 2.
